USA Africa Dialogue Series - AKB's Political Activism: A Response To My Bashers

AKB's Political Activism: A Response to My Bashers

 

Of course, those on this forum who know me well are quite aware of my political activism. So the following small sample of my activism is to inform those who have been bashing me that I have been engaged in such an endeavor for a long time. I present this short resume in humility, as I am quite aware of some USA-Africa Dialogue family members who have paid a great price for their activism on behalf of our masses.

 

Late 1970s to Mid-1990s:

*As president of the African Students Association at American University for several years, I championed the anti-apartheid movement on campus and worked with other like-minded groups at other Washington, DC universities, TransAfrica and other civic organizations to fight against the apartheid system in South Africa.

*As president of the International Students Association, Institutionsradet, at Stockholms Universitet in Sweden from 1982 to 1983, I organized many anti-apartheid activities at the university and the city of Stockholm, and worked  with like-minded organizations around the country.

*When some African leaders were even doing business with the apartheid regime, I worked with students and organizations across Africa to keep the pressure on their governments to divest from South Africa and to provide financial and other support to the anti-apartheid groups.

*I worked with African Libyans and progressive Arab Libyans to support Muammar Ghaddafi's very strong anti-apartheid stance and financial support for the liberation movement in South Africa. In fact, as I document in my book titled Sweden Versus Apartheid: Putting Morality Ahead of Profit, Sweden and Ghaddafi paid for Winnie Mandela's legal expenses when no one else provided the funds Nelson Mandela requested for his wife's defense.

 

Late 1979 to Early 1981

*At the height of the Iranian hostage crisis, CIA and Immigration officers came to American University's main campus with a paddywagon to take away Iranian students for questioning. As a student leader, I stood at the campus gate joined by hundreds of other students to get the officers off our campus.

 

1980

*Late President Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone had signed a deal with a chemical company to allow it to dump its waste in the country. Getting hold of the information, I led the movement to kill the deal. President Jimmy Carter listened to our plea and helped to get the deal canceled. The ship, already on the high seas, had to make a u-turn back to the United States. I still have the congratulatory letter from President Carter.

 

1991-1999

*After a ten-year stalemate in Sierra Leone's civil war, the government and its supporters in the Diaspora were calling on Britain and the United States to provide lethal weapons to the government troops. I was one of the leaders of the group that lobbied for Britain and the United States to push the warring parties to the peace table in Lome. In my letter to President Bill Clinton, which he forwarded to the State Department for action, I argued that if lethal weapons were sent to Sierra Leone, many of them will end up in the hands of rebel forces having been sold to them by government soldiers wanting money to feed their families like they had done in the past. I added that the stalemate in the war was not due to the lack of arms, as there were many Western arms dealers supplying both parties in the conflict, but one of indiscipline and corruption. I still have copies of the correspondences between United States government officials and me. In the end, we won the argument, as both parties to the conflict ended up in Lome, and today there is relative peace in Sierra Leone.